


Not as Bad as You Think

by Oscar_Wilde_Inspired



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, Ice Cream Parlors, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-02
Updated: 2014-03-11
Packaged: 2018-01-14 06:10:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,796
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1255783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oscar_Wilde_Inspired/pseuds/Oscar_Wilde_Inspired
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stiles and Scott own a Ice Cream shop with strange ice cream flavors and even stranger Ice Cream flavor names. Derek is the attractive new guy in town and Stiles really has to learn to control his brain to mouth filter.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Very loosely based on a prompt by victorianvalentines on Tumblr. Because apparently I am incapable of following directions. 
> 
> "You could write an AU where stiles works at an ice cream shop and Derek comes in on the weekends cause he has little kids and They both secretly have crushes on each other but stiles doesnt know his name."

The first time Stiles sees him he accidently drops a scoop of pecan ice cream onto the ground. Behind him Jackson had grunted and called him a klutz than pushed him out of the way to help a high school couple that were giggling at the names of the ice cream. Stiles had felt a small flush of pride at that. Scott and him had spent ages coming up with increasingly ridiculous names for the different flavors of ice cream.  
It was midsummer, the height of their busy season, when the man had first came into the pallor. A small girl with dark curly hair and a frown on her face that matched the man who Stiles assumed was her father clung to one hand. The other hand had a smaller boy with slightly lighter hair and dubious look holding on to it. 

He strolled up to the counter just as Stile had thrown the now dirty rag into the bucket full of bleach water. 

“Welcome to I Scream, where I scream, you scream, and we all scream for ice cream.” Stiles grinned and hoped like hell the giant blush he felt wasn’t noticeable. 

“I told you we shouldn’t of came here, it’s even worse inside” the little girl huffed as she rolled her eyes. 

The man hushed her quietly and looked back up at Stiles “Sorry about that. We just moved here and she’s angry that it’s not possible to drive two thousand miles just to go to her favorite ice cream place.” 

Stiles shrugged “It’s fine, I understand. When I was little I refused to go anywhere except Mack’s burgers. Would throw a fit every time my dad suggested we go anywhere else.”

“The fight throwing lasted up until about six months ago when his dad finally threatened to shoot him” Scott supplied helpfully as he appeared out of nowhere, half an hour late for his shift. Stiles had yelled at him numerous times for showing up out of the blue.

“Thanks Scott” Stiles hissed elbowing him in the side as Scott skirted around him to help an elderly man. 

The man bit his lip to hide the grin that was tugging at his lips. The girl was laughing straight out but the little boy looked like he was close to crying. 

“Hey” Stiles said suddenly and clapped his hands together “I know what might make this trip a bit more enjoyable. Scott and I came up with a new flavor last night and we have been trying to find a name for it. Would you two be interested in helping us name it?”

“How can you make up a new flavor? All the flavors of ice cream have already been invented” the girl shot back her hand on her hip as she glared up at Stiles. 

“Alexa” the man admonished softly.

Laughing Stiles shook his head “Oh young padawan you are so naive to the ways of immensely bored people. You know what I’ll bet you and your brother a free ice cream each that you’ve never heard of this flavor before.”

Alexa’s eyes lit up at the suggestion, the tears in her brother’s eyes slowly started to disappear.

“Only if it’s okay with your dad though” Stiles tacked on, realizing quickly that making deals with small children probably wasn’t such a great idea without the approval of their parents.

“How do you know he’s our dad?” Alexa asked her eyes narrowing “he could be our uncle or some crazy stranger who kidnapped us and is only taking us for ice cream because we’re behaving.”

Stiles let out a strangled laugh as Derek closed his eyes in misery “That is the last time I let Erica babysit the two of you.”

“It was for education dad,” Alexa said back. Stiles had a feeling there was a long and very interesting story to that exchange. 

“Oh god,” the man breathed out in exasperation and looked down at his son “what do you say Finn?”

Finn looked up at his dad his eyes still slightly watery than slowly nodded.

 

Finn and Alexa were studiously eating away at their ice cream both of their heads bent together in hushed whispers as Stiles pretended to work but was really just talking to the man whose name Stiles had learned was Derek.

“Moving at any age is rough,” Stiles said as he mindlessly wiped the same spot on the counter for the umpteenth time. 

Derek shrugged and took another bite of his ice cream. He had decided on Zombie Bomb which was just green mint ice cream with strawberry cheesecake pieces. It sounded disgusting but it was one of their more popular flavors. 

“I know” Derek played around with a chunk of cheesecake “I thought it might be easier for them because my family is out here along with Erica, Boyd, and Isaac.”

“Your pack right?” Stiles tried not to smile at Derek’s surprised look. “Don’t look too shocked my best friend is a werewolf. I could sense your wolf as soon as you opened the door. That and Alexa’s eyes flashed when she was smelling the ice cream I gave her.” 

Derek glanced over at Alexa and Finn then back to Stiles. His face went from the slightly open look he been sporting to tense and angry. Apparently Stiles had said the completely wrong thing. Most Were’s didn’t appreciate being outed and especially in not such a lack a daisy tone. 

“Sorry” Stiles winced wringing the cloth between his hands. “I guess that wasn’t the smartest thing to just blurt out.” Stiles could see Derek’s hands twitching, he was itching to get up take his kids and flee. It was a normal reaction for a parent and an even baser one for a werewolf. Family and pack came before anything else, protecting them until your last breath was not second nature it was first nature for them. 

“Scott always said I should learn to be more tactile over how I speak to people. I’m not a threat I promise. Neither is anyone else in this building. Scott is a werewolf, an Alpha actually, Jackson” Stiles pointed to Jackson who had given up the pretense of not listening to just stare straight at them “is a lizard man.” Jackson flipped him the bird before disappearing into the back. Luckily the only customer they had right now was old man Bezzle who was deaf in one ear. “Technically he’s a Kanima but during high school we took care of the issue of him needing someone to boss him around so he’s just part lizard now.” 

Derek’s hands were clenching hard on the table, his eyes kept bleeding blue before flashing back to his normal color. Stiles swallowed back the question about Derek’s eyes; he at least had enough good grace to keep his mouth shut about that one. He knew what blue eyes for a werewolf meant, the Henderson pack had two betas with eyes that flashed that cold icy blue. 

Stiles continued on, hoping that he could talk Derek down from ripping his throat out or worse, leaving. “Lydia who will poke her head out in about three seconds is a Banshee” right on cue Lydia stuck her head out of her office door. She gave Derek a once over before nodding and ducking back into her office. No doubt to call Talia. As soon as Derek had mentioned his name it had clicked for Stiles on who he was. Lydia had probably figured it out as soon as Derek walked in to the building “She’s not evil despite how evil she really looks. She was for a small fraction of time but thanks to Allison, that’s Scott’s beau by the way, and some incantations from Deaton she is one hundred percent good, well ninety percent. No, well okay eighty, maybe closer to sixty honestly.” 

“What are you?” Derek gritted, Finn and Alexa had given up eating in favor of staring worryingly at their father. Stiles could see the faint trace of a wolf on Alexa, it was young and wilder than most pups her age. He could sense it pacing about a sound between a growl and whine stuck in its throat. Finn on the other hand was void of a wolf, though not void all together of the supernatural. Beneath his skin Stiles could sense the faint tingle of static electricity. 

“I’m a Mage” Stiles smiled softly as he spoke “I have the entire pallor warded so whoever enters can’t sense anything supernatural.”

“You can tell though, about the supernatural things.” Derek looked around no doubt trying to find wherever the wards and charms were hidden. He’d be hard pressed to find them. Lydia and him and worked out a very delicate and highly sophisticated system where they were able to work all the wards and charms into the very makeup of the building. It would be near impossible for anyone besides him and Lydia to find them. 

Stiles nodded, Alexa was whispering into Finn’s ear, regaling him with what was happening. “I have a loophole built in so whoever I want is exempt from the ward. It gives us a step up on whoever comes in here. We’ve learned from our past mistakes of not being adequately prepared.” 

“My mom told me there was strange rag tag pack that moved in to town.” Derek said after a few very tense moments. Stiles could feel his entire body relax in increments. Maybe he hadn’t completely screwed this up yet.

Clutching his chest in mock heart Stiles fell back against the counter “Talia said that about us? I’m wounded. We’re not rag tag.” 

The thunderous look slowly slipped off Derek’s face and Stiles barely stopped himself from doing a victory fist pump. 

Talia had told them that her son had moved back home, a part of their agreement to share information on whatever was happening in the territory. The pact had been established five years ago when Scott and Stiles had decided to open the ice cream shop, a dream that had clung onto them since childhood. Of course Lydia had decided to get involved and she ran the business side of things, making sure that they didn’t slip slowly into debt or crash and burn without realizing. With Lydia of course came Jackson. 

Talia though, had never said her son was devastatingly handsome with two heart tearing adorable kids. 

“Did I mention how horrible I am at basic human interaction and that I’m really sorry that I just blurted out something that you should’ve told me only when you were comfortable doing so?”

“You make it sound like this wasn’t going to be just a onetime encounter.”

“Ugh” Stiles could tell he was gaping unattractively and that his cheeks were flushed an embarrassingly bright red. Behind him Scott snickered as he changed out the empty Barracuda Blues container for a full one. Barracuda Blues was blueberry ice cream with vanilla ice cream mixed in so it looked like fish scales. “I mean, that’s not what I meant, it’s just that your mom’s pack and our pack have weekly meetings. And that um I er…”

Thankfully he was saved by Alexa pulling roughly on his sleeve with a strength that was not normal for a girl her age. Stiles guessed since he already knew she didn’t have to hide her abilities “If you’re done making yourself look dumb in front of my dad we’ve got a name for you.”

“Er what?” Stiles blinked trying to get his brain back on the right track.

Rolling her eyes Alexa huffed in the same way Derek had done earlier. Her mannerisms were frighteningly similar to Derek’s. “A name for the ice cream, we figured one out.” 

“Oh yeah, hit me with it.”

“Not as Bad as You Think.” There was a moment of silence before Stiles burst out in laughter. Derek twitched his eyebrow up in question.  
Finn shrunk back a bit his eyes wide. Stiles quickly got himself under control. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to laugh but yeah that’s good. I like that a lot. I am most definitely going to use that.” 

Wide matching grins spread across both Alexa and Finn’s faces before they ran back to their spots to finish their ice cream. The interruption seemed to bring some of the tension in the place down a bit. Derek himself seemed a bit more relaxed, though no less grumpy at Stiles means of reveal of his personal information.

“What exactly is in the ice cream you gave them?”

“Black licorice, melted white chocolate swirls, and raspberry.” Derek made a face at the list of ingredients “you see thought it’s not as bad you think.” 

Derek sent him an exasperated look than took another look around the shop “This place isn’t half bad even with the odd ice cream selection you got going on.”  
Stiles couldn’t help the grin that split his face in half.

 

Stiles waved the money away that Derek attempted to give Stiles. “It’s on the house.”

“We lost the bet though” Finn stated earnestly his eyes wide in sincerity. His voice was soft and slightly higher pitched than Stiles would’ve thought for the boy. 

“Well,” Stiles said as he leaned down so he was eye level with Finn. “You see whenever I’m a complete meanie head to people I try to do something nice to make up for it.”

“You were mean?” Finn asked looking like Stiles had just told him Santa Claus wasn’t real. 

“Of course he was Finn” Alexa said impatiently “he went and blurted out that we were werewolves when it was none of his business.”

“Alexa” Derek implored desperately. Stiles had a feeling that Alexa had no issue calling people out on the bullshit no matter how much Derek tried to stop her. 

Stiles, though, nodded his head in agreement “Alexa’s right it was none of my business but sometimes my mouth starts speaking before my brain tells me to shut up.” 

“Oh” Finn nodded. 

“Thanks” Derek said when Stiles straightened back up.

“I should be the one thanking you for not throwing me through a wall.”

Derek laughed. Stiles could feel the bottom of his stomach hallow out, he was in so much trouble. He had only talked to Derek for less than a half hour and most of that half hour had been spent begging for forgiveness and back peddling his words. Despite that all he was pretty certain he was in love with the man and his adorably awesome kids.

“Well next time you’ll just have to be a bit more careful with how you flaunt your powers.”

Stiles gasped “I was not flaunting.”

Laughing again Derek shook his head slightly “That entire sentence and all you got was that part.”

It took a second for what Derek said to sink in, another face splitting grin pulled at his lips. “You implying that we’ll see each other again?”

“Like you said you and my mom have weekly meeting so we’re bound to run into each other again.”

Beside him Alexa gagged “Gross dad. Can we go before you start making smooshy faces at each other?”

A faint blush colored the tops of Derek’s cheeks and Stiles felt his stomach bottom out. Oh yeah, he was in so much trouble. “See you soon Stiles.”

“Yeah,” Stiles waved at Finn who gave him a small shy smile and wave. 

 

“You gonna tell Talia you got the hots for her youngest son?” Lydia asked as Stiles made out the name plate for the new flavor. 

“No” Stiles said as he carefully engraved the Y onto the metal plaque. “She’ll smell it as soon as Derek walks into the same room as me.”

Laughing Lydia rechecked the billing statement she was working on “That I have no doubt of. Jackson and Scott were both back here complaining about the wave of pheromones you were releasing at Derek.”

“It wasn’t that bad” Stiles mumbled.

“Yeah it was” Scott yelled through the door as he walked by.

“I was debating on whether or not my nose would grow back if I cut it off,” Jackson added as he followed Scott with three ice cream containers stacked in his arms.

“Well in that case I’ll make sure to secrete even more next time.” Stiles yelled at Jackson’s retreating back. 

Lydia was silent for a few seconds, her perfectly polished nails still on the keyboard. “Are you going to tell Talia that her grandson has what looks like the beginnings of Mage abilities?”

Stopping his ministrations Stiles looked over at Lydia “I don’t know. I already kind of screwed up with Derek I don’t want to blurt out something like that to Talia.”

“You didn’t screw up with Derek believe me honey” Lydia tutted at him “I saw the way that man was looking at you. You’d have to do a lot more than that to screw up with him.”

Smiling Stiles looked down at the name plate “I think I’ll talk to Derek first about it.”

“Good” Lydia quipped happily “that gives you the perfect reason to call him.” With a deadly aim, she needed to stop hanging out with Allison so much; she flicked a card at his head.

Picking it up Stiles stared down at Lydia’s nearly perfect handwriting. “Is this his cell phone number?”

“Yep” Lydia popped the last sound of the word. Her smile looked evil.


	2. Discovering a Spark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Stiles has a talk with Derek and a slightly terrifying encounter with Alexa.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not sure if there will be more chapters. So for now treat this as the end.

“If Lydia asks you if you want to check out her new discovery tell her no,” Stiles pressed as Derek spooned a mouthful of ‘Zeus Me Bitch’ into his mouth. Stiles was particularly proud of that flavor. Everyone including Scott had told him there was no way he could come up with a flavor that had figs, pomegranates, and red wine in it but he had proven them all wrong. He had taken a small tub of it over to Derek when the man had expressed disbelief over such a flavor existing. Half an hour later and Derek had nearly finished the entire thing.

Alexa and Finn had already devoured their own ice cream, Not as Bad as You Think has continued to be their favorite, and were now playing out back of the Hale house with their cousins. Laura and Cora were out back with them babysitting which really meant ensuring none of the kids seriously maimed or injured each other.

“Does this new discovery have any connection to as why Isaac came home the other day with blood inside his ears?”

Stiles nodded. At the time Stiles had been seriously concerned for the poor guy’s eardrums. He had been too busy making moon eyes at Scott and Allison to heed Stiles warning about covering his ears. Stiles couldn’t even bring himself to say I told you so to the poor fellow. “Lydia had been trying to use her powers for ways other than just predicting when someone is about to die. She figured out last month that she can channel her energy into emitting a high pitched scream that is particularly painful to anyone with supernatural hearing. We have since discovered that it’s powerful enough to burst eardrums if aimed in the right direction.”

“You used Isaac as you test dummy?” Derek frowned spoon halfway to his mouth. There was a building look of anger beneath his furrowed eyebrows.

Stiles quickly explained “No of course not, we would never do that…not unless he volunteered um voluntarily. He just happened to be preoccupied when Lydia unleashed her sonic scream.” The whole pack knew about Isaac’s past. They knew about his abusive dad and how the Hale’s had taken him after Stile’s dad had been summoned to the house by a frantic 911 call from a neighbor. All of them made an extra effort to keep Isaac out of harm. Especially Scott, the look on his best friends face when Isaac had crumbled to the ground in agony still tore at Stiles heart. Even if Scott wasn’t halfway in love with the guy Stiles was certain Scott would’ve reacted the same exact way. “Scott and Allison have a very strong affect on him when they’re around and together it’s pretty much a guarantee that he’s going to be goober brained.” Stiles had been making bets with Lydia and Talia to as how long it was going to take before Scott and Allison became Scott, Allison, and Isaac. 

Huffing Derek took another bite “Yeah I’ve noticed that.” Sticking the spoon into the ice cream Derek turned more towards Stiles so his torso and feet pointed towards him. “I get the feeling you’re not just here to deliver weirdly delicious ice cream and warn me about Lydia.”

“And people say you’re obtuse” Stiles grinned cheekily. Derek simply growled under his breath at Stiles. It was supposed to be intimidating but really it just went straight to his groin. Stiles hoped that he was able to suppress his scent before Derek caught the searing smell of his arousal. It was a particularly nifty trick that Deaton had taught him right after High School when Stiles had been tracked down by a rival pack and used as bargaining chip for Scott to give up his Alpha status.  
Thanks to his dad’s and Chris Argent’s demands that he be trained in hand to hand combat he was able to take out three of the Beta’s before his pack had burst in. It had been a ridiculously easy battle that ended with Scott telling the Beta in charge if he ever saw him again he’d let Stiles go apeshit crazy with the magic. 

“Easy there Kujo,” Stiles joke earned him another growl and an eye roll. No one ever appreciated his dog jokes. “I wanted to ply you with ice cream and alcohol before I brought up this topic of conversation.”

“Alcohol as no effect on werewolves Stiles” Derek went from mildly irritated to a cross between worried and angry. 

Stiles could hear the shrieks of laughter from the kids outside. He knew he should find a more private place to discuss this. The kids might not be paying attention to the conversation but he knew for a fact that Cora and Laura were. Not that any place was really all that private against werewolves. Stiles had found it incredibly hard to find a little private time with himself during the years he lived with Scott. 

“Do you remember the first day you met me and I rather tactlessly mentioned that I can sense your wolf?”

“Of course, even if I didn’t seen you nearly every day you’re kind of hard to forget.”

Stiles beat back the small bloom of warmth he felt over Derek’s words “Well with Finn I can’t sense a wolf in him.”

Derek looked confused his eyes wondered over to the kitchen window were Laura and Cora were point blank staring at them. “I know he’s human Stiles, that’s not really a big secret. I’ve known since he was born. His mother was human so it was a fifty fifty chance he would be too.” 

“No, no I know that. I know about Paige,” Stiles almost apologized for the way Derek flinched at his deceased wife’s name. It had been years since she had died but it was still an apparent sore topic for him. Stiles didn’t blame him his mom’s death still at times sent him into a panic attack. Stiles pushed on hoping he could get this all out without dredging up too many severely painful memories for Derek. “I was just wondering if maybe there was magic on her side or if she was magic herself.”

“What are talking about Stiles?” Derek growled, he was pointedly ignoring Laura and Cora who were now whispering to each other. Alexa had her face pressed up against the sliding glass door her eyebrows pulled down into a frown that was identical to her dads. 

“It’s just that…I mean I didn’t sense a wolf in Finn but I did sense a spark in him.”

Derek’s eyebrows slammed upwards in surprise his mouth falling open a startled ‘O’. Cora and Laura looked just as stunned as Derek, shocked into silence. Alexa had a thunderous look on her face that Stiles wasn’t too sure about. Stiles wasn’t even sure she was old enough to know what they were talking about.

“A spark?” Derek said finally, his mouth moved oddly over the words.

Stiles nodded “Yeah, I wasn’t too sure at first but I am now. I can see it just beneath his skin. It’s already quite powerful for someone his age.” Having a spark in a family of werewolves was extremely rare. In fact it was so rare that most people thought it was simply legend. Being born into a family of werewolves if you were human endowed you with certain abilities that weren’t shared with people born to humans. Humans born into wolf packs allowed the person a higher sensitivity to supernatural occurrences, their senses are heightened to supernatural creatures and acts. Stiles had a long standing theory that it was the universes way of ensuring the humans born of the pack were able to keep up with their wolf counterparts. A little bit of a boost to ensure they weren’t completely defenseless. But adding a spark to the all ready enhanced abilities made from a volatile combination. The only recorded occurrence, which most people thought was a myth, was back in the 1300’s and the girl had nearly wiped out all known hunters because her pack had been killed by them. 

“But…Paige she had been…”

“She could’ve not known. Not all family secrets are always handed down.” Stiles offered. Finn had now joined Alexa by the door. She was talking in an animated fashion to him her eyes wide and hands flying through the air. Finn looked like he was close to tears. 

“What does this mean? What does this mean for Finn?”

“All that it means is that he has a spark. It doesn’t have to mean anymore than that. All we know about Spark’s being born to werewolf heritage is from outdated myths. Lydia and I have spent the last month scouring through every book we have. We’ve contacted every contact we have and are exhausting every single resource we have to find out whatever we can. We’re going to make sure that Finn is well prepared when his magic activates, I’m going to make sure that nothing goes wrong.” 

Derek had a look on his face that Stiles couldn’t quite understand. It looked like the expression he used when he was tucking Alexa and Finn in at night but there was something else behind it. Something deeper, something that sucker punched the air out of Stiles lungs. 

“You don’t have to do this…all of this.” Derek managed finally, the expression still firmly on his face.

Stiles shook his head, tearing his eyes away from Derek so he could breathe properly. It wouldn’t do any good to have a panic attack right after he assured Derek everything would be okay. “No, I want to. This is something that I want to do, need to do. My mom wasn’t around to teach me about all of this. My dad tried but he isn’t a Spark, he tries to understand but unless you’ve experienced it for yourself what it’s like to have magic crawl beneath your skin it’s hard to relate. I would never let someone else go through the hell I went through before I found Deaton.” 

Before Stiles could register what was happening Derek had pulled him in for a hug. His nose was buried in the crook of Stile’s neck. He took in a deep shaky breath as Stiles brought his arms up to wrap around Derek’s shoulders. “Thank you.” Derek whispered into his skin causing Stiles to shiver.

“No problem” Stiles croaked his fingers dug into Derek’s skin. He couldn’t bring himself to move away until Alexa’s small voice broke through the silence that had fallen between them.

“If you’re going to help Finn you better not screw up. I might be small but I can assure you a painful death.”

“Alexa,” Derek yelped as he put a small space between him and Stiles. 

Grinning with teeth that were too pointed to be human Alexa apologized “I’m sorry Stiles.” Stiles tried not to shudder at Alexa’s tone. Stiles hoped he never pissed her off. 

Finn appeared from around the counter “Does this mean I get free ice cream?”

Stiles laughed as Derek covered his eyes with his hand and muttered something under his breath. “Only if you promise to not let Alexa use me as a chew toy.”


End file.
